New Study Shows Value of Australian Commercial TV

A new study from Australian trade body Free TV has found that roughly three-quarters of respondents value commercial TV more than ever, with the segment contributing A$2.3 billion ($1.6 billion) to the nation’s GDP in 2019.

Everybody Gets It: the Economic and Social Benefits of Commercial Television found that 89 percent of Australians think commercial television is a valuable service and 76 percent believe it is more important than ever, while 86 percent think it supports Australian culture.

Free TV commissioned the report from Deloitte Access Economics. It cited the 15 to 20 percent surges in viewing during the peaks of the COVID-19 and bushfire crises and noted that 75 percent of respondents said they trust commercial television news.

Free TV CEO Bridget Fair said, “In commissioning this report, Free TV Australia wanted to shine a light on our industry and its many contributions to Australia’s society and culture. We were also keen to ‘take the temperature’ of our audiences to understand the value they place on this free, universal service.

“It turns out that despite increased competition, Australians value commercial television even more than we expected. Access to local entertainment, news and sport is a very big deal for viewers, with 95 percent telling us that losing commercial television would have an impact on society, particularly through the loss of access to news, sport and entertainment.”

John O’Mahony, Deloitte Access Economics partner and report co-author, said: “Commercial television makes a strong economic contribution to Australia and is critical to the Australian screen production industry. The sector also continues to drive innovation through its content and use of new digital technologies to remain competitive, but our consumer research found it is the social and cultural contributions of the industry including trusted news, universal service provision and Australian stories that Australians continue to value most from this important industry.”

The survey also found that Australians are choosing to consume Australian content ahead of international programs on commercial television. In 2019, all of the top-ten rated shows were Australian, even after excluding sport. In 2019, commercial TV provided more than 100,000 hours of Australian content.